


Misguided Ghosts

by bearpantaloons



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Ghosts, Mentions of Death, kinda spoopy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 15:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16478060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearpantaloons/pseuds/bearpantaloons
Summary: Delphine and her parents move into a new house, intending to fix it up and sell it, but its ghastly inhabitants have other ideas.Haunting of Hill House AU.





	Misguided Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone! I recently finished watching The Haunting of Hill House, which, if you haven't seen it, WATCH IT. So good. This fic borrows a few ideas from it, but nothing terribly spoilery. Though, if you're concerned, watch the show first. 
> 
> Hope you like this story.

Delphine walked through the tall double doors of her new house – well, summer house. Her parents were contractors who flip houses for profit and this house was their next project. It smelled stuffy and dusty, and everything was either covered in plastic or tarps. Her father dragged all of the luggage through the doorway while her mother explored the ground floor. Delphine slowly climbed the grand stairway that wrapped around both sides of the house and searched for what would become her new bedroom for the next few months.

To the left was the master bedroom, which would most likely go to her parents and to the right were smaller bedrooms. At the end of the hall was a red door and when Delphine tried to turn the doorknob, it was locked. She reminded herself to ask her father for the master key at some point. She chose a bedroom that had a small reading nook at the window that looked into the backyard. The property was surrounded by dense forest that her father forbade her from going into.

“Delphine!” her father called from downstairs. She made her way down to where her father was and there was a woman standing with him. She was wearing a long, black dress and her hair was up in a tight bun. Her eyes looked sad, but she held a strength behind them that unnerved Delphine.

“Delphine, this is Siobhan. She’s the groundskeeper for the house and she’s going to be helping your maman and me while we work.”

“Bonjour, Siobhan,” Delphine said with a nod and bow of the head.

 “Hello, love, it’s nice to meet you. You look to be about my children’s age.”

 “Oh, you have children?” Delphine asked.

Siobhan gave a solemn nod. “I’m sure you’ll meet them soon enough. Anyway, I should be going. Lots of work to do.” The woman took her leave and Delphine’s father left to go to the hardware store for some supplies.

Delphine hated being alone with her mother. Ever since her brother passed, she was never the same. He’d died in a freak accident in their house in Lille, France. He was playing and while he was running around, he’d slipped on a toy and hit his head on the corner of their coffee table. Delphine was the one who’d found him and she knew her mother blamed her for not watching him better.

She dragged her suitcase up to her room and found a broom and a few rags in one of the closets in the kitchen, so she could start cleaning. As Delphine started sweeping her room, she found something on the floor. She picked it up and examined it. It looked like stuffed monkey with a pair of glasses on its face and a white coat. Delphine smiled at the stuffed toy and set it down on the reading nook and continued cleaning. Her mother came in later with some clean sheets and helped Delphine make her bed.

“Maman?” Delphine called out as her mother started walking out of the room.

“Yes, ma chère,” she answered.

“I… nothing. I’ll see you at dinner.” Her mother nodded and left the room. Delphine continued cleaning her room until her father returned with tubs of paint and other cleaning supplies. Since the kitchen wasn’t usable yet, they ordered take-out and ate on the floor in the main hall.  Delphine’s father tried to carry the conversation and talk about his plans for the house. Siobhan had a few contractor friends who were coming the next morning to assess everything and start working. They would need to check the foundation and make sure the house wasn’t falling apart, check the roof for leaks, paint, clean. It was going to be a long summer.

Delphine’s parents promised her that this would be the last house they’d work on and the money they earned from it would be enough to buy their forever home. They would never have to move again. She knew that the only reason why they moved away from France was so they no longer had to live with the memory of her brother, but she suspected that no matter where they went, it would follow them.

Later that night, after Delphine had gotten ready for bed and was about to stay up and read a little, she saw the stuffed monkey on her bed.

“Strange. I could have sworn I left that in the nook,” she said to herself. She assumed her mother moved it for her. She climbed under the covers and lay the monkey next to her while she opened her book to read.

After a few minutes, she heard a knock at her door. “Hello?” she called out.

Another knock.

She climbed out of bed and opened her door, but no one was there. She furrowed her brow and walked down the hallway a few steps.

“Maman? Papa?”

 No answer.

_THUMP._

Delphine jumped at the noise that came from the room with the red door. She gasped and slammed her door shut, jumping into bed and pulling the covers above her head. Her breathing became heavier and she shut her eyes tight. She didn’t sleep a wink that night. When the sun came up, she folded the sheets down and she slowly got out of bed. She turned the knob of her door slowly and inched the door open. Still in her nightgown, she descended the stairs and listened for any movement. She heard voices coming from the kitchen and peeked her head in. Her parents were there with Siobhan and another man.

“Bonjour,” she said.

 “You don’t look like you slept at all, mon biquet,” her father noticed.

“I… I didn’t. I heard something, a loud knock. When I opened the door, nothing was there. I couldn’t sleep after that.”

Her mother laughed nervously. “Don’t be silly. It was probably just your father.”

Siobhan looked at the other man knowingly.

Her father looked at them. “Oh, pardon, this is Siobhan’s son, Felix. He’s going to be helping us with the cosmetics of the house – the painting, re-upholstering the furniture, things like that.” The thin man waved at Delphine and she returned a polite smile. “Well, I suppose we should get to work. Eat your breakfast and then come up to your room, Delphine. You get to paint it today.” Delphine shoveled her food into her mouth and hurried up to her room after. Her father had chosen a light green paint for her room. He’d already taped off the edges and laid plastic over the floor and the furniture.

 “Papa? Do you have a key to the room at the end of the hall? It’s locked.”

Her father shook his head. “I don’t believe I do. I’ll ask Siobhan about it. Okay, start painting and I’ll come back and check on you later on.”

Delphine picked up the paint roller and experimentally rolled it up and down one section of the wall. As she got more confident in painting, she rolled more paint up and down the wall. When she turned to gather more paint on her roller, she noticed green footprints on the plastic. She checked her feet, but there was no paint on them. When she looked back to the wall, she saw painted handprints all over the wall. She gasped and dropped her roller, running out of her room to find her parents. Her father was measuring a wall when Delphine ran up to him in a panic. She grabbed him by the hand and dragged him upstairs to her room.

“Look, those footprints and handprints aren’t mine. I don’t know where they came from.” Her father looked at her skeptically, but the handprints were a little smaller than Delphine’s hands, but she could have painted them. Same with the footprints.

“Come now, don’t joke around.”

“I’m not, Papa! I didn’t do this.” Her father shook his head and left the room. Tears of frustration formed at the corner of Delphine’s eyes and she grabbed the paint roller and painted over the handprints. It took her all morning and some of the afternoon to finish painting the walls. She would still need to add another topcoat to it, but that could wait. She went downstairs to find something to eat and her parents had catered some sandwiches for themselves and the workers, so she picked one up and went out the back door to look at the yard. There was a big grass field and a deck that held a table and chairs. Way out in the distance, near the trees, she thought she saw someone – a girl. She took a few steps out onto the grass.

“Hello?” She called out. “Do you live around here?” As she got closer, she noticed the girl had wild, curly blonde hair and red circles around her eyes. “Um, hi. I’m Delphine. What’s your name? Are you hungry?” Delphine held out the remainder of her sandwich. The girl bared her teeth, grabbed the sandwich, and ran back deeper into the woods. Delphine stopped at the edge of the yard and tried to see if she could locate the girl. When she was convinced that the girl was gone, Delphine walked back to the house.

Later that night, Delphine and her parents sat around the newly-varnished dining room table.

“Are there any other children who live nearby?” Delphine asked.

“I am not sure, mon ange,” her father replied. “Siobhan only has Felix, but I haven’t had time to meet all of our neighbors yet.”

Delphine tilted her head, remembering that Siobhan said she had 'children'. “I saw someone in the woods, a girl. She looked a little… wild. She took my sandwich and ran back into the trees.”

 Delphine’s father chuckled. “You’ve always had such a grand imagination.”

“Come, chère, it’s time for bed,” her mother said while ushering her upstairs. Delphine got ready for bed and climbed under the covers. Her mother sat on the edge and tucked her in.

“Maman, do you blame me for Henri?”

Her mother’s eyes fell and she smoothed the duvet flat across the bed. “Of course not. It was an accident.” Her chest heaved and she stood up. “Bonne nuit, Delphine.”

The door shut behind her and Delphine turned on her side, looking out her window, which was cracked open to allow the paint fumes to vent. She shut her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Hours later, she heard another loud _BANG_ and it shook her awake. She was still lying on her back, but she couldn’t move. Her eyes were wide open and she saw a figure at the foot of her bed. The figure stepped forward and was hit by the moonlight coming from the window. It was another girl, blonde, with a bob haircut. She was smiling devilishly, but there was something in her eye. As she continued stepping forward and eventually crawling onto the bed, Delphine could see that the girl had a pencil lodged into her eye socket. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t do anything.

The girl with the pencil in her eye kept crawling up the bed, closer to Delphine’s face, hovering above her.

“Rachel, what the hell are you doing? Get out of here,” a voice said from the doorway. Delphine couldn’t move her head, so she couldn’t see who was talking.

“Relax. I’m just having a little fun with the new girl.”

“Leave. I’m sure there are some mirrors around here for you to gaze longingly into.”

With a huff, the girl named Rachel got off of the bed and left the room. Delphine still couldn’t move, but she saw the other girl walk toward the bed. She had glasses and looked similar to Rachel, just different hair. It was darker and wavy, and she had it up in a loose ponytail. She appeared to be about the same age as Delphine, but her clothing looked a little odd, kind of outdated, but more like they might have been hand-me-downs.

“Sorry about her. She can be a major bitch.” When Delphine didn’t move or say anything, the other girl had a look of realization across her face. “Oh! Sleep paralysis. Yeah, sorry, that happens in here a lot. Take deep breaths and clench your fists.” The girl turned on the light and Delphine did as she was told until she could breathe normally and it felt as though a spell had been lifted.

“Who… who are you?” Delphine asked meekly.

“Oh, my bad. I’m Cosima. Nice to meet you.” She waved.

“I’m Delphine. Do you live near here?”

Cosima shrugged. “Kind of. It’s a little hard to explain.”

Delphine assumed they both snuck in through the open window. They must have climbed a ladder up to the roof.

“Oh, cool! You have a lot of books.” Cosima ran over to her bookshelf and read through all of the various titles. “This is a good one,” she said, pointing at _The Origin of Species_. “Not many people read that one for fun.”

Delphine blushed. “I really like science.”

“Me too,” Cosima answered, smiling back.

The brunette walked around the rest of the room, looking at everything, but not touching anything as if she was afraid of breaking something. Delphine just watched the curious girl take everything in. After Cosima made her rounds, she stood at the foot of the bed.

“Well, anyway, I should be going. Sorry again for scaring you. Would it be okay if I came back to see you tomorrow night? Minus the scaring part, of course.”

Delphine didn’t know why, but she liked this girl. Her gentle smile and inquisitive eyes made her feel comfortable. She also didn’t have any friends there, so she didn’t see the harm in spending more time with her.

“Yes. I would like that.”

“Great! Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Delphine.”

“Bonne nuit,” Delphine answered as Cosima left her room and the door closed behind her. She smiled and lay back down on the bed, bringing the covers up to her chin. She’d made a new friend.

Cosima.

It didn’t take her long to drift off to sleep after that. There were no more figures lingering over her and the breeze coming from her window was the wind and not a rush of air of someone entering her room.

***

The next morning, she woke up and got dressed before heading downstairs. There were croissants and other pastries in the kitchen. Delphine grabbed a couple and ate one before heading out the backyard. She looked for the curly-haired blonde in the trees, but didn’t see anyone. She set one of her pastries on a paper plate and left it at the edge of the woods and sauntered back into the house. She found her parents and Siobhan in one of the bedrooms and they were looking at the walls.

“Delphine, do you know anything about this?” her father asked.

Delphine looked at what her parents were looking at. One of the walls had part of its wallpaper torn off and “come home, meathead” was written in green crayon. “I don’t know what that is. It wasn’t me.”

Her father was growing impatient and rubbed his forehead. He knelt down in front of his daughter and put his hands on her shoulders. “Mon biquet, your mother and I are working hard to fix this house. If you keep defiling it, it’s just going to make this take longer, which means we won’t get to move out as soon as we’d hoped.”

“But Papa, I didn’t do it. I swear,” Delphine argued. “Please believe me.” Her father pat her on the head and both he and her mother left the room. Siobhan stood next to her and looked at the writing pensively.

“I know it wasn’t you, love,” she said.

“You do?”

Siobhan nodded. “This house has a lot of… history. Things appear and disappear. It’s been going on for quite some time. The previous owners, the Westmorlands, complained about it all the time.

“You used to work for them, right?” Delphine asked.

“That’s right. I took over once my parents both passed. I raised my children here. Mr. Westmorland let us stay in the cottage that’s a bit north of the property until I saved enough to buy it from him.”

Delphine looked up at the woman. “You have other children?”

Siobhan stared down at the floor and closed her eyes. “Felix had four sisters, but they didn’t survive. There was an accident years ago – a fire. I was able to carry Felix outside, but when I tried to go back and get the girls, the fire had gotten too big and I… I couldn’t. They…”

Felix walked into the room and saw his mother choking back tears. “Oh, mum, what did I tell you? Sorry, Delphine, pay her no mind.” He put an arm around Siobhan and walked her out of the room.

“The red door at the end of the hall,” Delphine said as they exited the room, “is there a key for it?”

Siobhan got down on her knees and grabbed onto Delphine’s arms, squeezing them hard enough to hurt. “Listen to me, child. Never go into that room. Promise me you will never go in there.”

Felix pulled Siobhan away by her elbow. “Mum, that’s enough. Leave her alone.”

“Do not go into that room, Delphine!” Siobhan screamed. Felix pulled her away, leaving Delphine in the room alone. She glanced back at the writing on the wall and left the room. She walked down the hallway and stopped in front of the red door, trying the knob again. It was still locked. She sighed and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find something to keep herself occupied while she waited for Cosima to come over. After the sun set, she left her window open again, even though the paint was all dry and the fumes had dissipated. Delphine waited for what felt like hours, but Cosima still hadn’t come. She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, so she drifted off to sleep. Another loud _BANG_ shook her awake and her eyes shot open. She was face-to-face with a girl who looked just like Rachel and Cosima, but her hair was down, tickling her face, and she was angry.

“Oi, where’s Helena?” she demanded.

Delphine couldn’t move or speak again. She tried taking deep breaths and clenched her fists like Cosima instructed her to do the night before. The light flickered on and she saw Cosima storm in and grabbed the other girl by the arm.

“Sarah? Jesus, you’re as bad as Rachel. Sorry, Delphine.”

“She knows where Helena is.”

“How do you know? And, honestly, Helena doesn’t want to be found. You know how she is.”

Delphine calmed her breathing while she listened to the other two girls speak. What she gathered was they were siblings, as were Rachel and Helena. Her eyes widened when she realized who they actually were.

“You-you’re Siobhan’s daughters.”

“In the flesh – well, sort of,” Cosima quipped.

Delphine paused and tried to organize her thoughts. Siobhan said Felix was an only child now that his sisters had died in a fire. “So, you two, and Rachel and Helena are all… dead?”

“As a doornail,” Cosima answers. “Sorry for the deception. Not everyone is friendly toward ghosts, or undead, or whatever we are.” Delphine felt a pang of sadness; the friend that she’d made wasn’t even alive. It was like some cruel joke.

“As much as I’d like to stay here and tell you our life story, I’ve gotta go find our sister,” Sarah said as she left the room.

Cosima sat on the edge of the bed and Delphine noticed that it didn’t shift at all. “You okay? I know it’s kind of a lot to take in.”

“Um, oui. I suppose. Do Felix and Siobhan know you’re still here?”

“Ah, yeah, about that. We all kind of agreed to stay away from living family members. It would hurt too much and we didn’t want them to feel obligated to stick around for us, you know? But Helena, she didn’t want to stay away, so she spends nights in the forest and watches them from outside of the cottage. The rest of us are stuck inside the house, but it’s not so bad. At least I got to meet you.” Cosima smiled at Delphine, which caused her to blush. “Well,” Cosima said while hopping off the bed, “what do you want to do tonight?”

Delphine looked at her clock and it was nearly two in the morning. “It’s a little late.”

Cosima looked at the clock, as well. “Oh, dang, oops. Ghosts don’t really understand time the same way the living do. I could try to start showing up earlier, but I can’t make any promises. I was always late to appointments and dates when I was alive,” she chuckled.

“Date? Is that what this was meant to be?” Delphine asked.

“Oh, well, I don’t know. I didn’t mean to presume. I mean, it could be whatever – a friend date!” Cosima tripped over her words and it made Delphine laugh. The blonde enjoyed teasing Cosima, watching her get flustered and nervous. It reminded her of all the boys who would try to ask her out and they’d always look so dejected when she ultimately turned them down. She didn’t feel the same inclination to turn Cosima down, though. There was something about her sincerity and the kindness behind her eyes that made her want to learn more about the girl.

“Oh man, it is late. I shouldn’t keep you awake any longer. I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow night?”

Delphine nodded. “Tomorrow night.” Cosima smiled that big toothy grin that Delphine had grown to enjoy so much and flicked the light off without even touching the switch as she left the room and the door shut behind her. Delphine lay back in bed and closed her eyes, unable to contain her excitement for her friend date with Cosima the next night.

***

The next morning, Delphine did the same thing she did the previous mornings – got dressed, went downstairs for breakfast, and looked for her parents or for Siobhan and Felix. She found them all in the basement, looking at the walls, with masks over their faces. There was a giant hole in one of the walls.

“What’s wrong?” Delphine asked.

“Black mold,” her father answered, despondently. “It is not safe for you down here, chérie. Go back upstairs.” Felix went back up with her.

“Felix, will you tell me about your sisters?” Delphine asked when they got to the kitchen.

Felix sighed. It had been years since he’d talked about them. Siobhan forced him to go to therapy when he was younger, but as he got older, he learned how to compartmentalize and gave off the façade that he was coping better.

He took a deep breath. “Well, I guess I was closest with Sarah. She was kind of the alpha of the group, but don’t tell Rachel I told you that. She always wanted to be the leader, be in control of the rest of us, but she was always such a twat and none of us listened to her. Sarah and I just got each other. Helena was a wildcard. She was unpredictable and a little violent, but she was loyal to a fault. She’d do anything for us. Now, Cosima, she was the most innocent of us all. The only bad thing she ever did was smoke pot. She’d never hurt anyone and I think she was our anchor, the heart the group. She kept the rest of us grounded.” Felix wiped a stray tear from his eye. “Oh, bollocks. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about them.”

“They sound like really lovely people,” Delphine said, placing a hand on Felix’s.

“Yeah, I miss them heaps. Mum hasn’t been the same since. Sometimes I catch her talking to them.”

“Felix? Do you believe in ghosts?”

Felix scoffed. “You mean white sheets with eyes holes cut out?”

Delphine laughed and shook her head. “Non, like loved ones who have unfinished business, or people who’ve died and are cursed to live their afterlives in the same place for an eternity.”

Felix raised an eyebrow. “You certainly are a morbid thing, aren’t you? Well, I wouldn’t say I believe in those types of ghosts, but my mother certainly seems to. The reason why she doesn’t want you to go through the red door is because that’s where the fire started. She thinks it’s cursed.”

“What do you think?” Delphine asked.

“I think it’s a crock of shite, but I haven’t been in there since the fire, so who really knows?”

“How is it that the rest of the house has no fire damage?”

“No idea. All I know is that my sisters died in that room.”

“I am sorry, Felix,” Delphine said solemnly.

“It’s all right, happened a long time ago. Anyway, I’d better get back to work before my mum skins me alive.”

After Felix left, Delphine found some food to eat and took more outside for Helena. The pastry from the previous day was gone. Delphine grinned and left another sandwich on the plate.

That night, Delphine waited eagerly for Cosima’s arrival and, to her surprise, Cosima showed up early. By 10, the brunette knocked on Delphine’s bedroom door and it swung wide open and was met with an excited smile.

“Ready for our friend date?” Cosima asked.

“Oui! I have been waiting all day,” Delphine replied.

“Awesome, follow me,” Cosima said while climbing out of Delphine’s window. Delphine poked her head out.

“Er, Cosima? Where are we going?”

“Well, seeing how I’m confined to this house, our options are pretty limited, but just trust me.”

Delphine did trust Cosima. They hadn’t known each other long, but she felt like they’d known each other for a long time. She climbed out the window and followed Cosima across the roof over to the side of the house, where a blanket was laid out.

Cosima sat down first, followed by Delphine. If Cosima has been corporeal, her arm probably would have brushed against Delphine’s. That’s how close they were sitting next to each other. Instead, a chill ran up the blonde’s spine and Cosima furrowed her brow.

“Okay, give it a couple minutes and you’ll see why we’re here.”

Right on time, a rumble echoed through the air and it shook the house beneath them. Delphine let out a little yelp and Cosima chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You’d better not. This was your idea.”

In the distance, bolts of lightning flashed through the air and touched down to the earth. It really was beautiful, Delphine thought. Thunderstorms had always frightened her before, but when she watched Cosima out of the corner of her eye, face full of wonder and excitement, it made everything feel more extraordinary, like she was seeing it for the first time.

They watched silently for a while until Cosima noticed Delphine shiver. “Are you cold?” she asked.

“A little,” Delphine replied.

Cosima smiled warmly. “Let’s get you inside.”

They climbed back into Delphine’s room and Cosima looked through the bookshelf once more. “Delphine, this is going to sound like a weird request, but would you read to me? Just for a little while.”

“Of course,” Delphine replied. “Which book do you want me to read?”

“Surprise me,” Cosima grinned.

Delphine looked through her collection of novels and chose one. She lay in her nook while Cosima lay on the floor.

Delphine began reading, “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even parks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”

Cosima giggled. “ _The Haunting of Hill House?_   Really? Little too on the nose.”

“Do you want me to read to you or not?” Delphine snapped back jokingly.

“Sorry, sorry. Please continue.”

Delphine kept reading until her eyes got too heavy to stay open. Cosima watched Delphine sleep for a short while before covering her with a blanket and leaving the room quietly. By the time the blonde awoke, the sun was shining brightly through her window and her friend had gone.

That’s how things went for the next few weeks. Delphine would wake up, set some food outside for Helena, find something to work on around the house until it was nighttime and she got to see Cosima. Some nights they would sit outside, others they would play board games, but most nights they were content just staying in Delphine’s room while she read to Cosima.

“Delphine?” Cosima said one night, interrupting their reading.

“Oui, Cosima,” Delphine answered.

“Do you ever think about if we had met before I died? Do you think we would have been friends?”

“I think about it all the time,” Delphine said, her voice lowered to a whisper. “I definitely think we would have been friends.”

“Same here,” Cosima said, smiling from the floor.

“Hey, Delphine?”

“Yes, Cosima.”

“I’m glad we met when we did, though.”

“So am I.”

“Kind of sucks that I can only touch inanimate objects, though. Wait, I have an idea! Come with me,” Cosima said while leading Delphine into one of the other bedrooms. “Okay, stand in front of the mirror here.” Delphine did as she was told and she watched Cosima walk _through_ the mirror. Instead of her own reflection, she saw Cosima. “Now come closer.” Delphine took a few steps forward. Cosima put her hands up. “Put your hands here.” Delphine put her hands up to match where Cosima’s were. “Can you feel me?”

 Delphine smiled and played along. “Oui.”

“Is… is it okay if I kiss you?” Cosima asked nervously.

Delphine’s face became very serious and she nodded wordlessly. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips up to the mirror as Cosima did the same. If she didn’t know any better, Delphine could have sworn she felt a jolt of electricity coming from the mirror. When she opened her eyes and backed away from the mirror, she saw Cosima smiling and she walked back out.

“I wish we could have known each other, you know, before,” Cosima said sadly.

“Me too,” Delphine answered.

“When are you leaving?”

Delphine frowned. “By the end of summer. I need to go back to school.”

Cosima nodded. “So, how long do we have left?”

Delphine calculated the days in her head. “About three weeks.”

Cosima hummed. “Well, I guess I’ll have to make them the best three weeks you’ve ever had.”

***

The house was slowly progressing and it was beginning to look as good as new. Delphine’s parents were working around the clock to meet their deadline, but things continued to go wrong without explanation. In addition to the black mold, the house always felt hot, no matter how high the air conditioner was on.

During one of their reading sessions, there was a scraping sound coming from the hallway.

“What was that?” Delphine whispered, closing the book. The scraping sound was getting closer.

Cosima chewed on her bottom lip and furrowed her brow. “Just stay still. Don’t move and don’t say anything.” She climbed onto the nook next to Delphine and faced her. “Look at me.” Delphine’s heart rate increased and she was breathing hard. She heard the door open, but she looked straight ahead at Cosima’s face.

_Scrape._

_Scrape._

_Scrape._

She could feel a presence near her and she swallowed hard, still looking at Cosima’s worried eyes. Cosima smiled at her reassuringly until the figure turned around and left. The door closed slowly behind it. Delphine let out a deep shuddering breath.

“Cosima? Who was that?”

“That was one of the former owners, PT Westmorland. He, uh, doesn’t take kindly to strangers in his home.”

Delphine was shaking. “Could he hurt me?”

“I wouldn’t let that happen,” Cosima answered. “Most of the ghosts here aren’t violent, but some are, well, not very nice. They want to keep the house unoccupied.”

“Like Rachel?” Delphine asked.

Cosima scoffed. “Rachel is harmless. She likes to act tough, but she’s really a big softy.”

“That’s what Felix said,” Delphine chuckled.

“F-Felix?” Cosima repeated. She was quiet for a few seconds, deep in thought. “Felix… was my brother. I remember.”

“He misses you, all of you,” Delphine said. “So does your mother.”

“My mother…”

“Oui, we talked about them before, Cosima.”

Cosima shook her head. “Yes, of course. Felix and my mother. It’s getting pretty late, you should probably get some sleep. I can wait here until you fall asleep if you want.”

Delphine nodded. “I would like that.”

Cosima lay down on the floor next to the bed until she saw Delphine’s head poke out over the edge.

“Get up here, silly.”

Cosima grinned and lay down on the bed next to Delphine, looking at the stuffed monkey next to her. “I think that used to be mine,” she said, pointing to the monkey.

“It looks like you. Look at the cute little glasses.”

They lay side by side until Delphine fell asleep. Cosima stayed a little while longer, watching Delphine sleep, examining each curve of her face, memorizing the location of each freckle.

“I don’t want to forget you,” she whispered.

***

Delphine’s parents continued their progress on the house and one night, while she waited for Cosima in her room, she heard the scraping down the hall again.

_Scrape._

“C-Cosima? Are you there?”

_Scrape._

Delphine started breathing heavily as the scraping inched closer and closer to her door. She quickly opened her window and climbed out onto the roof. The scraping was inside of her room now. She held her breath, but didn’t look inside and she slowly made her way across the outer wall of the house. She spotted a ladder hanging off of the edge and climbed down. Without hesitation, she bolted across the grass toward the woods. She stopped at the edge of the trees and looked around.

“Helena?”

Silence.

“Helena? Are you there? Please.”

A figure started moving toward her without any sounds of sticks cracking or brush being shifted. She saw the outline of a person emerging from the shadows, but still keeping its distance.

“You know my name,” the figure said.

“Oui. Yes, I know your sisters. Cosima?”

“Yes, Cosima is my sestra.” Helena moved forward a little more, enough so Delphine could see her face.

“We’ve been meeting every night for the past two months, but she didn’t come to my room this evening. And then, Mr. Westmorland appeared again and she… she didn’t come,” She choked back a frightened sob. “Did something happen to Cosima?”

“Cosima is forgetting. House is changing, so they forget. Soon, they will forget me… and you.”

“No,” Delphine whispered, shaking her head.

Helena cocked her head sideways, staring at the girl curiously. “I like your hairs, I will help you. Come.” She led Delphine deeper into the woods until they arrived at a clearing. Helena points to a spot on the ground. “This is me. You take me to house.”

Delphine looks at the ground and sees a pile of bones. There was no way she would be able to carry all of them in her arms. “Wait, I need to get something to carry them in. I’ll be right back.” She ran back to the house and climbed back to her room, grabbing a blanket and heading back down. Helena was still waiting for her in the clearing and watched Delphine as she carefully placed each bone in the center of the blanket. She wrapped it up and held it in her arms and rushed back to the house, setting the blanket of bones in the middle of her room. Helena appeared seconds later, standing next to her, looking around.

“Yes, I remember house. I must find my sestras,” she said, leaving Delphine’s room. She headed toward the red door at the end of the hall. With a wave of her hand, the door swung wide open and Delphine looked inside. Cosima, Rachel, and Sarah were all sitting on the floor inside. The wood in the room was rotten and charred, it had been on fire.

“Meathead?” Sarah asked blearily. “Is it really you?”

“Yes. It is me,” Helena replied. "Woman with pretty hairs brought me back." She walked inside the room and her sisters all stood up to embrace her. As Delphine took another step forward, Cosima saw her and yelled at her to stop.

“Delphine, no! You can’t come in here.”

“Why not?” She asked, stopping at the edge of the doorway.

“Because you’ll never leave,” Sarah answered.

“Oh, let her. It’s not like she has much of a life outside of here,” Rachel argued, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You don’t know that,” Cosima spat. “She’s going to go to school and become a scientist. She has a life out there, Rachel.”

“Yes, a life she’s going to leave you for. Is that what you want?”

Cosima shook her head. “Of course not, but it’s not my decision to make.” She walked out of the room and spoke to Delphine. “Come on.”

Delphine followed Cosima back to her room. The brunette sat down with her back against the reading nook, frowning. Delphine sat across from her.

“That’s where the fire was?” Delphine asked.

Cosima nodded. “I was in there with Sarah and Rachel and we were messing around and someone knocked over a lamp and started a fire. We… we couldn’t get out. We screamed and we heard Felix outside of the door, yelling, but he couldn’t get in, so Mom had to pull him out of the house and I guess she couldn’t get back in after that. And Helena, she had been playing outside, so she had to stand there watch us all burn to death and she couldn’t do anything. I’m guessing she couldn’t handle it and stayed in the woods until she died, too. At least the four of us are back together now, thanks to you.”

“I don’t want to leave,” Delphine said quietly.

“You have to, Delphine. You can’t get stuck in here, too. That’s not the fate you’re meant to have. You’re supposed to finish school and go to college and study science, save lives.”

Delphine was crying, her head hanging low into her chest.

“Hey,” Cosima said, “it’s going to be okay.

Delphine shook her head. “If this house gets sold, I’ll never see you again.”

“I’ll always be with you, even if my body is gone, even if my dumb ghost brain forgets you. ‘ _When we die, we turn into stories.’_ Right? You just need to remember my story and I’ll be there whenever you need me.”

Delphine looked up at Cosima, tears still falling. “Cosima, I… je t’aime.”

Cosima smiled. “I know. I love you, too.”

***

For the next three weeks, Delphine and Cosima kept their same routine, reading and kissing through the mirror. Whenever she went downstairs, Delphine could hear her father cursing. She knew that the house wasn’t coming together as planned. Things kept breaking right after being fixed, new problems kept coming up. The stress of her parents’ financial debt was starting to take its toll.

Then, one day, Siobhan and Felix arrived at the house and made Delphine’s parents an offer. They said they would buy the house from them, as-is. Siobhan had tucked away some money that was meant for the girls’ college fund from the Westmorlands, but since they couldn’t use it, she decided to buy the house instead.

“My daughters are here. I can’t bear the thought of anyone else living in this house. Felix and I will stay on and manage the grounds and you won’t lose out on any money.” Delphine’s parents agreed and Siobhan told Delphine that she was welcome to come visit every summer, during her school breaks.

As everything got packed back up and they got ready to move out, Delphine passed the room where the writing had been and it had changed to “Welcome home, meathead.” Delphine smiled and went back up to her room. On her last night there, she and Cosima stayed up all night, talking and reading together. Cosima reassured her once more that they’d see each other again.

Delphine’s father packed up their belongings into the car and Siobhan and Felix were there to see them off. Everyone climbed into the car and Delphine looked back. Siobhan and Felix were standing on the stairs in front of the house. She looked up at the corner room with the red door and she saw four figures standing at the window. Cosima was pressed up to the window and she waved as the car pulled out of the driveway.

***

Every summer up until she left for college, Delphine visited the house. She spent all of her time with Cosima and her sisters. Siobhan and Felix would come by and check on her every so often, but she took care of herself. She would make sandwiches for herself and Helena, she uncovered the mirrors for Rachel, Sarah got more art supplies to use to draw on the walls, and she brought books to read to Cosima.

When Delphine had to leave for college, she wasn’t too upset, because she knew she could still visit the house, until one day when she got a phone call from her father. Siobhan had gotten sick and Felix had to take care of her, so no one was available to take care of the house. They were going to sell it. Delphine was devastated. She was crying into her phone, begging her father to take over the house, or allow her to. He told her it was out of his hands and apologized.

Delphine left the lab room that she was in, struggling to stand. She felt someone touch her arm and she wiped her face and turned around. Her breath got caught in her throat when she looked at the person standing in front of her.

“Hey, sorry, you uh, forgot this in the lab,” the woman said, holding out a piece of paper.

“Thank you,” she said breathlessly. She was staring at the other woman’s familiar features, trying to keep herself from breaking. It was her.

“Um,” the other woman shifted uncomfortably, “So, I may have peeked at your transcript a little bit. You’re… French? And you’ve got killer grades. I’m impressed.”

Delphine nodded and blushed a little. She stood up straight and held out her hand. “Delphine.”

The other woman looked at her hand curiously and took it in her own, shaking it gingerly and smiling that same smile. “Cosima.”

“Enchantée.”

 


End file.
